The Cinema Corner – September 8th

Movie of the week – The Killing Fields

The Lighthouse cinema’s season of movies revolving around journalism continues with some absolute crackers this week. Nothing more needs to be said about Citizen Kane, which plays Sunday. You can also catch Sidney Lumet’s brilliant media satire Network on Friday and Monday, and Alan J Pakula’s Watergate drama All the President’s Men on Saturday. But my pick of the bunch is a rare screening of Roland Joffe’s The Killing Fields, a gruelling look at life under Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime, which screens on Saturday.

Wind River

The pick of the new releases is Wind River. Written and directed by Sicario and Hell or High Water screenwriter Taylor Sheridan, it continues his look at the more neglected areas of the US. This one follows a hunter (Jeremy Renner) who teams with a rookie FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) to solve the murder of a Native American teenager.

It

Stephen King’s It is a lengthy novel, even by that author’s standards, so compressing it into two movies is a mammoth task. The first movie, simply titled It, does about the best job possible of cramming half of the book into two hours, but this one really needed to be a Netflix series. That said, it’s a refreshingly dark horror movie with some great performances from its likable young cast.

Insyriated

Belgian filmmaker Philippe Van Leeuw attempts to address the ongoing Syrian conflict with the crudely titled Insyriated, but it’s an exploitative look at a very complex situation that ignores the politics of the region and instead gives us a grindhouse take on the subject. It does feature some impressive performances, but if you’re looking for any insight into Syria you’ll be left wanting.